Solar power seems to offer an answer here, as well. My Solar Oven arrived yesterday, so I set it up today on the patio to see how it does with a baked Chicken and Rice dish.

I figured that the principle must be about the same as that for a low temp slow cooker, so I just tossed rice, water, chicken, garlic infused olive oil, and a handful of spices into the pot, put it in the oven, closed the lid, and aimed it at the sun. I’ll let you know how it turns out in four or five more hours. At the moment, the temp inside the oven is right at 176 degrees farenheit. “Low” for a crockpot is around 170F, and “high” is 190-200F. The docs say the oven can easily reach the 190 level. If so, just about any crockpot recipe should be workable for the solar oven, provided you get enough sunlight to maintain the temps.
UPDATE: The Solar Oven temp is now reading 205F. I suspect it will be good for boiling water, and more than sufficient for Pasteurizing it.
UPDATE: Here is the finished product:

Looks pretty good, doesn’t it? Tastes that way, too. I discovered that with the included reflectors attached, I could get the temperature inside the oven up to 300F, and this was after the hottest sun was gone. You could pretty much do standard baking and roasting with this thing. I think I’ll see how it does with a couple of cast iron dutch ovens or a cast iron skillet….

Bill, can you say where you purchased your oven? I've been looking for something like that, with poor results.

So far, the extent of my solar cooking has been warming Compleats for lunch at work by wrapping them in a black cotton rag and putting them on the dash of my car for 2-3 hours. Works fine in warm weather; I'm already eating while half the lunchroom is still in line for the microwave(s). Gotta walk before I learn to run...

Thanks in advance for any info you can provide, and results of any further use of your oven!

Yeah, it's called a "Sport Solar Oven," and as such things go, it's pretty cheap at 135 bucks. But spring for the extra $23 and get the reflectors. They make a lot of difference in interior heat and cook time.http://www.solarovens.org/

Basically, I treat it as a regular oven capable of hitting 300 degrees for two or three hours in bright sunlight. The ambient temp doesn't seem to matter much.

It's best with casseroles, soups, stews, and the like, but I've baked pans of cornbread in it, and one of these days I'll get ambitious and try a loaf of whole wheat bread, just to see.

I've also used it just to boil water. You can disinfect water in one, and also bring water to a rolling boil. I have a large french press coffee maker, a hand coffee mill, and a bunch of coffee beans stored in air-tight, oxy-free conditions. The world may end, but I still gotta have my coffee!

smackdaddies

I've also used it just to boil water. You can disinfect water in one, and also bring water to a rolling boil. I have a large french press coffee maker, a hand coffee mill, and a bunch of coffee beans stored in air-tight, oxy-free conditions. The world may end, but I still gotta have my coffee!

I was thinking about solar ovens the other night and the possibility of making my sour dough artisan bread in one. After reading Bill's post above I'm not sure I'd get the same results as I do in the electric oven. I bake my loaves at 425 for thirty five minutes and it doesn't sound likely these will get that hot. I've got a cast Iron dutch oven that I've been meaning try try over charcoal too, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

which has a number of different models. Shipping is pretty atrocious, however.

I've also been looking at some linear fresnel lenses on EBay. They're a bit cheaper, but don't come with any actual oven. I keep thinking there might be a useful peanut butter/chocolate moment in there, somewhere...

Bill, for more uses for that temperature range you could look up recipes for a "slack oven", which was a Colonial term for a low-temperature oven. I've seen a couple of them although the recipes themselves have never been collected in one book. Here's one

Thanks, Flunk! Old Guy, that one you linked looks almost identical to mine, so I assume the performance would be similar. Bandit, I bought one of those eBay fresnel lenses - 48"x50", I think - with the intention of trying to build some sort of cooking contraption with it, but so far I've never gotten around to building the frame. I should probably make that a weekend project and report back, with pics. Maybe soon.

I'd be highly interested in the results. You'd wind up with something considerably less compact (when fully assembled), I think, due to the large lens size and long focal length, but capable of reaching very high temps very fast on less-than-perfect days, for perhaps even less money than the commercial solar ovens, even if you buy the lens at retail.

It's been a while, but I seem to recall the lens was something like a hundred bucks. I have to make a run to the new Lowes here in town to buy that shed today and arrange for delivery (and get the ply and 2x4s to build a foundation for it), so I'll take a look at getting the stuff to build a frame for the lens while I'm at it.

prepperjim

Yes, PJ, I like it a lot. It's sturdy, simple to use, and bakes things very well. And all it needs is sunlight.

I finally got off the "pot" and ordered one of these. I looked at my finances for last month and I did not spend a single dollar on preps last month. I feel *ashamed*! Time to make up for it this month.